Shane Nackerud presented on recent trends and applications available at the University of Minnesota Libraries. Shane demonstrated how a librarian without formal web design/web programming educational background can become a web usability and informatics expert in the library field. He is a powerhouse. He advised future librarians the absolute need to at least be familiar with web design and the theoretical understanding of the planning and creation inherit in web design.
I have often thought that there will be a blending of IT and MLIS skills and qualifications in future permutations of library jobs. At times Shane seems to indicate an MLIS degree would not be needed for what he does but I believe it is very helpful since he focuses his work for libraries and has the educational understanding of the field and the needs of librarians and patrons.
I found both hope for future librarians and concerns about those in the profession ("reference librarians are a dime a dozen").
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Style, Validation and Indexing, Oh My!
Major Challenges
OK so I was delusional. Making a web site without web authoring programs is hard work. It's not for the feint of heart. A team of three of us turned in our simple web page and this is what it looks like on the left. It's small so it can fit. It's not pretty but it works on two browsers, has navigation, simple images and working links. It's in XHTML strict but it doesn't pass W3C validation (the home page had 12 errors, many of which seem related to the URL links we point to). Wow - I have great respect for coders who did this on their own, back in the day. I need to read up on the DIV command!
On top of this, a web designer needs to be cognizant of the meta data, key words and effective registration of their page so it can be found on the internet by the spiders, bots and browser indexing protocol. There's plenty to consider when designing a webpage, as my previous posts hinted at.
Well I better get back to making this page look nice. See you later!
OK so I was delusional. Making a web site without web authoring programs is hard work. It's not for the feint of heart. A team of three of us turned in our simple web page and this is what it looks like on the left. It's small so it can fit. It's not pretty but it works on two browsers, has navigation, simple images and working links. It's in XHTML strict but it doesn't pass W3C validation (the home page had 12 errors, many of which seem related to the URL links we point to). Wow - I have great respect for coders who did this on their own, back in the day. I need to read up on the DIV command! On top of this, a web designer needs to be cognizant of the meta data, key words and effective registration of their page so it can be found on the internet by the spiders, bots and browser indexing protocol. There's plenty to consider when designing a webpage, as my previous posts hinted at.
Well I better get back to making this page look nice. See you later!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Social Software: Privacy and Misuse
So Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are hip and cool, I know. Add to those, Amazon and eBay. But what about all the private materials you post and all those recommendations and reviews you post? You think it's totally private and without a "cost"?
What about the state looking to see if you are paying your sales tax on those books and DVDs? A New York Times article says Amazon has the data and the state may get a search warrant for it.
What about the data-mining Facebook does and shares with its advertising vendors?
Or what about the fears of overshare?
What about the state looking to see if you are paying your sales tax on those books and DVDs? A New York Times article says Amazon has the data and the state may get a search warrant for it.
What about the data-mining Facebook does and shares with its advertising vendors?
Or what about the fears of overshare?
For those of us who came of age, technologically speaking, in the Web 2.0 Era, it may be too late to cancel, delete or otherwise redact what’s out there. Basically we have to deal with cards we’ve dealt ourselves. One could argue that if you choose to live your life in public you don’t get to control what other people do with this public information. You can, however, choose how much of it to put out there.And add to all this the possibility that HTML 5 may implement more aggressive data-mining practices embedded into the internet.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Browser Wars and Web Design Ramblings
Browsers
OK so I lived through the browser wars and was vaguely familiar with them. I knew Microsoft was sued by the Dept. of Justice for using their industry influence to force IN on users and I recall using Netscape Navigator in the 90s and remember all the free Netscape CD-ROMs I received in the mail and in magazine subscriptions. And I even will admit to being an AOL user and reveling when AOL purchased Netscape. I am a computer geek and lived these years with my eyes not completely shut.
But I was surprised to learn that Firefox (a distant cousin to Netscape) had surpassed IE in use on the internet in Dec. 2009/Jan. 2010. IE has sense regained usage but it seems it is merely a player in the browser market, not the King.
And so I look forward to standards (kind of like the rule of law - something a lawyer is cognizant of) helping all these various browsers play nice. I am a big proponent of the free market so let the features, bells and whistles ensue as long as the browser is stable - for, yes, I also recall the early days of browsers that routinely crashed - something that digital natives are less familiar with. :-)
Web Design
It takes a lot of separate html files and folders to make a decent-sized, functional website. It's a maze out there, boys and girls. And it's great to have maps and plans before embarking into Web Creation Land. I think I will be coding right up until Christmas - so much for overambition!
OK so I lived through the browser wars and was vaguely familiar with them. I knew Microsoft was sued by the Dept. of Justice for using their industry influence to force IN on users and I recall using Netscape Navigator in the 90s and remember all the free Netscape CD-ROMs I received in the mail and in magazine subscriptions. And I even will admit to being an AOL user and reveling when AOL purchased Netscape. I am a computer geek and lived these years with my eyes not completely shut.
But I was surprised to learn that Firefox (a distant cousin to Netscape) had surpassed IE in use on the internet in Dec. 2009/Jan. 2010. IE has sense regained usage but it seems it is merely a player in the browser market, not the King.
And so I look forward to standards (kind of like the rule of law - something a lawyer is cognizant of) helping all these various browsers play nice. I am a big proponent of the free market so let the features, bells and whistles ensue as long as the browser is stable - for, yes, I also recall the early days of browsers that routinely crashed - something that digital natives are less familiar with. :-)
Web Design
It takes a lot of separate html files and folders to make a decent-sized, functional website. It's a maze out there, boys and girls. And it's great to have maps and plans before embarking into Web Creation Land. I think I will be coding right up until Christmas - so much for overambition!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)